Thursday, January 02, 2014

Perfect Season

Troy has a job using his "football genius" to help the Jets, so he and his mother move to New Jersey. Because his father ran off with the $5 million he had been paid, Troy has to go to Summit and not the fancy private school that his cousin Ty is attending. Summit's football team is awful, and their stadium is falling to pieces, but Troy manages to talk Seth into interviewing for the coaching position, and he gets hired. Seth thinks it's a good idea for Troy and cocky new student Chuku to try out for the high school team, and they get on it. The high schoolers are less than pleased to have to play with 8th graders, and give them a hard time. Things aren't going well for Troy with the Jets, either-- he has lost his ability to predict plays, which means he could end up losing a lot of money. Add to this accusations that Seth has bribed students to play for Summit, and the "perfect season" of games might not turn out to be so perfect. Luckily, Tate uses her investigative skills to uncover what is really going on with Summit's football program, and things eventually end well.Strengths: Lots of good football plays, interesting characters, and a mystery will make this popular with the readers who enjoy this series and author. The writing is easy to read and flows smoothly.Weaknesses: Having just read an article about high school athletes transferring schools and having to sit out for a year, I wondered why this was not the case for Chuku and Troy. Also, while it was nice to see Tate back, the device of having her father in an accident seemed far fetched. I also didn't quite believe that Chuku and Troy would be encouraged to play for the high school. While all of these things didn't seem possible to me, I'm sure that they make the stories more appealing to students. What 8th grader doesn't want to make $5 million and play high school varsity football?

Search This Blog

2019 Reading Challenge

Review Policy

Because this blog is aimed at librarians and patrons of school libraries, I will not review books that are published solely in e-book formats. Books should be available in hardcover or library binding through library suppliers such as Follett. Books should fall within the target demographics of this blog.